JMiscellanies. 181 
This article and the next, were translated by a lady and communicated by Mr. 
C. U. Shepard. 
2. New observations upon the action of sulphate of lime.-—The 
sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris, or gypsum) is employed with great 
success in agriculture. 
It is especially in the culture of sainfoin, as well as in other artifi- 
cial meadows, that its good effects have been proved. ‘The sainfoin 
has even such an affinity with the lime, that the presence of the he- 
dysarum onobrychis is almost always the indication of a calcareous 
soil, as the colts-foot (tussilago farfara) is of the blue clay, the aren- 
aria rubra of a thin gravel, and the wild sorrel (oxalis acetosella) of 
the presence of zron. ‘These are some of the botanical indications 
which answer very well in the analysis of soils for agriculturists 
in general. It does not appear nevertheless even to the present 
time, that plaster has been of great assistance in horticulture. But 
chemists are not agreed as to the manner in which the sulphate of 
lime acts upon vegetation. In employing it, it is scattered with the 
hand upon the crops when the leaves are in their full developement 
towards the end of April, or the commencement of May, at a moist, 
cloudy time but not rainy ; and those who perform the operation think 
in general, that they administer a stimulant, while some suppose that 
it is useful in: obtaining for the leaves a favorable moisture; but the 
clover and the sainfoin naturally contain in their stalks a considerable 
quantity of gypsum, and when the soil appears tired of producing 
these plants, it is commonly thought that the soil becomes exhausted 
of its gypsum, and that it is no longer in a state to furnish to them the 
necessary ingredient. ‘This observation leads to the presumption al- 
so, that the sulphate of lime enters, by a dose more or less ccnsider- 
able, into the composition of these plants. In this uncertainty, too 
much publicity cannot be given to any experiments which are likely 
to settle the question; and this consideration engaged M. Bec- 
querel, member of the Institute, to communicate to the Academy of 
Sciences (in the session of the 7th of Nov., 1831) some observations 
made by M. Peschier, Apothecary of Geneva, upon the influence 
which the sulphate of lime exercises in vegetation. M. Peschier had 
disposed two equal vases filled with silicious sand slightly moist, and 
in each of which he had sown water cresses; one of the vases had 
been watered with pure water, and the other, with water containing 
sulphate of lime in solution. Afterwards he reduced to ashes, the 
cresses of the two vases, which had vegetated during the same time, 
